Life Swap

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Getting this…..

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For this

Let me take a moment here to depart from the usual rants about the end of television or the inevitability of new technology…

About a year ago, we listed our Manhattan apartment on a website called Homeexchange.com.

It doesn’t cost much to list. You put up a few photos and an explanation. The idea is that you swap your house for someone else’s.

There was a movie a few years ago in which this was the basic premise of the plot.  It was called The Holiday

Kate Winslett played an unhappy English writer who swaps her UK cottage for Cameron Diaz’s Beverly Hills mansion. The story line is that in fact they swap more than just homes, but also lives, or part there of.  This much of the movie is pretty much realistic. (The rest I am not so sure).

Last year we swapped our home for a farm in the Cotswolds in England. For a week we took care of the chickens, baby lambs (it was lambing season), their gun-schooled dog and their cattle.  We had a great time.

Now, we’ve just confirmed our second swap. This time for a 16th Century stone house on the English coast.  

They take your house, you take theirs.  It costs nothing.

I am not here to advertise for Homeexchange, but for us it has turned out to be a great experience. One that I highly recommend.  

Next year? The South of France.

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 35 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.